Law enforcement officers and other similar vehicle operators face risks when they are transporting detainees or prisoners. Such detainees are often transported while they are handcuffed with their hands behind their back, but escapes from the vehicle and altercations with officers still occur. Some vehicles include a partition that physically separates the rear of the vehicle where handcuffed prisoners are seated from a front area where one or more officers are seated.
Increasingly, law enforcement vehicles are using seat belts to secure detainees when they are transported, both for the additional security they provide to the officer as well as to protect the detainees in the event of a collision. But securing a conventionally-configured seat belt around a seated detainee is difficult to accomplish safely. According to one approach, the seat belt is suspended away from the seat so the detainee can be guided into a seated position on the seat and below the seat belt, and the officer then finishes securing the seat belt without needing to reach across the detainee.
Incidents of handcuffed and seat-belted detainees that have escaped from vehicles or had altercations with officers are still reported. Thus, there is still a need to improve measures for securing detainees in vehicles that ensures their safety during transport, but decreases their chances of escaping from the vehicle or injuring officers or others.